The former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner has been found guilty of manslaughter over the 2012 shipwreck that killed 32 people off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio.<br /><br />Francesco Schettino was left alone in the dock after the ship’s owners paid a one million euro fine and prosecutors accepted plea bargains from five other officials. <br /><br />Delivering the verdict, the presiding judge sentenced him to 16 years in jail for multiple manslaughter, causing the crash and abandoning his passengers.<br /><br />Prosecutors had asked for a jail term of 26 years for Schettino, who has admitted some responsibility but denied blame for the deaths that occured during the evacuation.<br /><br />Investigators severely criticised his handling of the disaster, accusing him of bringing the 290 metre-long vessel too close to shore. <br /><br />The subsequent shipwreck set off a chaotic night as more than 4,000 passengers and crew tried to get off the ship.<br /><br />Schettino, however, will not actually go to jail before the end of Italy
